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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Jun 2023, 384 pages
Paperback:
Mar 2024, 384 pages
Book Reviewed by:
Norah Piehl
Buy This Book
Reality and the supernatural collide when an expert puzzle maker is thrust into an ancient mystery—one with explosive consequences for the fate of humanity—in this suspenseful thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Angelology
All the world is a puzzle, and Mike Brink—a celebrated and ingenious puzzle constructor—understands its patterns like no one else. Once a promising Midwestern football star, Brink was transformed by a traumatic brain injury that caused a rare medical condition: acquired savant syndrome. The injury left him with a mental superpower—he can solve puzzles in ways ordinary people can't. But it also left him deeply isolated, unable to fully connect with other people.
Everything changes after Brink meets Jess Price, a woman serving thirty years in prison for murder who hasn't spoken a word since her arrest five years before. When Price draws a perplexing puzzle, her psychiatrist believes it will explain her crime and calls Brink to solve it. What begins as a desire to crack an alluring cipher quickly morphs into an obsession with Price herself. She soon reveals that there is something more urgent, and more dangerous, behind her silence, thrusting Brink into a hunt for the truth.
The quest takes Brink through a series of interlocking enigmas, but the heart of the mystery is the God Puzzle, a cryptic ancient prayer circle created by the thirteenth-century Jewish mystic Abraham Abulafia. As Brink navigates a maze of clues, and his emotional entanglement with Price becomes more intense, he realizes that there are powerful forces at work that he cannot escape.
Ranging from an upstate New York women's prison to nineteenth-century Prague to the secret rooms of the Pierpont Morgan Library, The Puzzle Master is a tantalizing, addictive thriller in which humankind, technology, and the future of the universe itself are at stake.
Excerpt
The Puzzle Master
December 24, 1909
Paris, France
By the time you read this, I will have caused much sorrow, and for that I beg your forgiveness. As you know, my child, I am a haunted man, and while the toll has been steep, I have at last made peace with my demons. I do not write this as an excuse for what I have done. I know too well that there is no forgiveness for it—not in the eyes of God or man. But rather, I write this account of my discovery out of necessity. It is my last chance to record the incredible events, the terrible and wonderful events, that changed my life and will, if you venture into the mysteries I am about to relate, change yours, as well.
What, you ask, is responsible for such torment? I will tell you, but take heed: Once you know the truth, it is not easily forgotten. It has haunted me every minute of every day. There was no question of ignoring it. I was drawn to its mystery like a moth circling a flame—In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni. ...
Brink soon realizes that Moses is not the only one following Price's case carefully, and that other, powerful forces are eager to solve the puzzle for their own reasons. His increasingly dangerous quest takes him deep into a centuries-old mystery, one with connections to both Jewish mysticism and the modern-day technocratic elite. Trussoni, whose previous novels include a duology about angels, employs some supernatural elements, which complement the thriller plot. Readers who usually eschew the fantastical, however, will find the novel well-grounded in the real world; Trussoni's research is adeptly woven throughout, and the story develops through a variety of interconnected narratives, with diaries and archival letters appearing alongside Brink's present odyssey...continued
Full Review
(513 words)
(Reviewed by Norah Piehl).
Angie Kim, author of Miracle Creek
The Puzzle Master is an ingenious literary thriller that combines everything I want in a book: an absolutely blistering Russian nesting doll of fascinating stories that dismantle some of the most deeply engrained ideas about good, evil, and the origins of humankind. In short: The Puzzle Master = (The Da Vinci Code + The Silent Patient + sprinkle of Stephen King) × gorgeous writing. Chris Pavone, author of Two Nights in Lisbon
An absolute gem of suspense, with a wholly original and unforgettable protagonist, a propulsive plot with diabolic twists, and pure reading pleasure on every page. I loved it. Douglas Preston, co-author of Bloodless and The Cabinet of Curiosities
The Puzzle Master is one of the most insanely compelling novels I've read in ages. This story has all the elements I love—dark histories, gothic settings, murder, vivid characters, and a twisty, unpredictable plot. I am normally a jaded reader, but I could not put down this book... . Highly, highly recommended. Janelle Brown, author of Pretty Things
The Puzzle Master is a riveting, beautifully layered, fast-paced page-turner. You'll want to clear your calendar for this one. Justin Cronin, author of The Passage Trilogy
Utterly absorbing ... The 'master' of the title isn't the only master here. The word applies equally to the author of this fabulous novel. Steve Berry, author of The Last Kingdom
My kind of thriller.
In Danielle Trussoni's The Puzzle Master, protagonist Mike Brink was once on his way to a promising football career until an injury fundamentally changed the way his brain worked, leading him away from the gridiron and into MIT. As Trussoni mentions in a brief author's note, Brink's diagnosis—acquired savant syndrome—is a real, albeit rare, phenomenon.
According to the Brain Injury Law Center, the condition, which has also been described as "prodigious savant" or "accidental genius," involves "the presentation of (often extraordinary) scholarly skills that can emerge after a non-disabled individual suffers a traumatic brain injury or illness." This is believed to result from the brain's right hemisphere over-compensating ...
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